8 Most Important Mutual Fund Questions – Sahi hai ya Nahin

Mutual Fund is a new baby for most of Indians – I keep getting lots of mutual fund question through Comments on post, Ask Us or Business newspapers where I regularly write query section. I have selected most important & most frequently asked questions (faq) out of that. You can also ask questions in the comment section.

Mutual Fund Questions

Is a mutual fund with low NAV better?

Difference in performance of a Dividend or Growth Plan?

What are the tax benefits in mutual funds?

What are the charges in mutual funds?

Is it a good time to invest in mutual funds?

Should I invest in Infrastructure funds?

Equity Vs Real Estate – which one is better?

Mutual Funds or Direct Equity – who is the winner?

Low NAV Vs High NAV Mutual Funds

Question: Is it worth to go for a SIP in a fund where the NAV price is very high. Say HDFC Equity where NAV is around Rs 200?

Answer: You should not consider NAV as a deciding factor while investing in Mutual Funds. It is a myth that it’s good to invest in Mutual Fund with a low NAV because you will get more units and that means more returns. Let me clarify high or low has nothing to do with the future performance of the fund – NAV keep changing due to performance of the fund and that depends on markets & fund manager performance.

Only good thing with higher NAV fund is that it is having some past track record to show. Low NAV is a gimmick used by agents to introduce you to new funds where their commission is higher. Say NO to NFO.

Check calculation of high and low NAV mutual fund

Dividend or Growth

Question: I want to invest in Reliance Mutual Fund, but as I am seeing the NAV, there is huge gap in Growth and Dividend NAV. Which is better to invest?

Answer: Most mutual fund schemes come in three options – dividend, dividend reinvestment and growth. Under growth option, you get the units at the time of buying and you have same number of units till the end. The NAV keeps changing according to performance. The fact that under the dividend option the fund keeps on declaring regular dividends so NAV reduces with such dividends. In dividend reinvestment you get additional units on ex-dividend NAV. However, the truth is that it does not make a dime of difference which option you choose, from the pure investment yield point of view. There is a caveat, though – Investors should opt for that option that minimizes their tax liability.

Let’s take an example to understand this. Suppose an investor decides to invest INR 1000 in both, Dividend Re-invest and Growth option of the fund.

Check the calculation of dividend & growth plans.

Tax benefits in Mutual Funds

Question: What are the tax benefits I can get while investing through mutual funds? Are there any special funds where I can invest to avail tax benefits?

Answer: Tax benefits on Mutual Funds keep changing time to time. According to current laws few of the tax benefits are: No long term gain tax on sell of equity mutual fund(long term here means 1 year plus), Tax free dividend, No dividend distribution tax in case of equity mutual fund, Benefit of indexation in case of debt mutual fund & Lower long term gain tax in comparison to any other interest bearing product. You can also invest in Equity Linked Tax Saving Schemes of mutual fund to take benefit under section 80 C. ELSS schemes have lockin period of 3 years & as the name suggest it invest in equity shares.

Mutual Fund Charges

Question: How the mutual fund charges their annual maintenance fee from the investor? Does it reflect in the NAV we get against the amount investor pays? How can an investor calculate it from the statement it receives? Other than this any other charges?

Answer: You are lucky that you are asking me this question in No Entry Load era so there are only annual charges that you have to pay. Mutual Funds deduct Annual Maintenance Charges from the fund that you are investing. Charges depend on the type of fund & size of fund you are investing into. Charges are higher in case of equity funds if compared to debt funds – if size of the fund is big charges are comparatively low. Charges are levied in guidance of SEBI & maximum charges that are allowed in case of Equity fund are 2.5% & in case of debt are 2.25% in a year. These charges are used for asset management, distribution cost, custodian charge, registrar charge etc. These charges are automatically deducted from your NAV on daily basis. So the NAV you see is after adjusting these charges. It can’t be calculated through statement but you can check these expenses in monthly factsheet.

Good time to invest in Mutual Funds

Question: I would like to invest Rs 2 Lakh for Long Term. Will you suggest investing it right now or should I wait for correction.

Answer: Far more money has been lost by investors in preparing for corrections, or anticipating corrections, than has been lost in the corrections themselves. You should understand that timing of market is not possible even by experts. In long term equity has consistently outperformed all other asset classes and works well against rising inflation. Equities are volatile in short run but have the potential to create immense and stable wealth in long run. In last 30 years, if one has invested for any 20 year period, the worst returns are 13.35% which is double of what you get in a Endowment policy & average return of equity in same period is 16.72% which is double than any other debt investment. But if you don’t feel that you have such patience better invest through 1 year Systematic Transfer Plan. Read – Secret of High return Investment

One more on timing the market

Question: I was running a SIP of Reliance Vision for Rs. 1500/- per month it ended in the last September…I invested Rs. 36000/-in 2 years… the present value is Rs. 49,000/-. It touched Rs. 54,000/- a few months back also but I didn’t withdraw the money. But now as the markets are going down, I think I have taken a wrong move by not taking the money out.Answer: Equity gives you two type of return, one is speculative and another is fundamental growth. 95% of the investors in shares or mutual fund are here for speculative gain that is gain from the short term price movement. They start TIMING THE MARKET rather giving TIME IN THE MARKET. This approach for short term gains is the real cause of loss. Investment for long run is not only rewarding but also beats inflation by a good margin and creates wealth. If you keep such a close track on your investment it is going to be very tough for you to achieve your goals through equity investment.

Infrastructure Funds

Question: Should I invest in Infrastructure Funds – as it is believed that India needs good infrastructure & that will be reflected in performance of the stocks.

Answer: Infrastructure as a theme was started in 2003-04 at that time exposure of infrastructure based sector was not more than 25% in diversified equity funds. But now compare portfolio of diversified equity fund with any infrastructure funds and you will find that exposure in infrastructure related stocks has gone up to 60-70% of overall portfolio. So now investing in infra funds means increasing risk of your mutual fund portfolio. Infrastructure covers lot of things like banking, power, energy, engineering, construction, cement, metal etc. One more thing people need to realize that any diversified equity fund can buy into any sector or theme if fund manager sees potential. Buying theme funds should be decided only when the theme has something unique to offer, which other funds are either not offering or offering in a limited way.

Equity Vs Real Estate

Question: Which will give better returns in long term – equity or real estate?

Answer: Both equity & real estate are growth asset class and will always beat inflation in long term by substantial margin. Both real estate & equity market are driven by growth of the economy & businesses. In long term equities give better return than real estate but investors have earned better returns in real estate. Reason is in real estate people invest for long term may be 10-20 years so it saves there undue expenses, tax & bring out greed & fear emotions from investment. But in equity we do it other way & that’s the reason investor feel properties give better return. Also remember their are many short comings with real estate as well like size of investment, leveraging, black money, title problem, encroachment, liquidity issue, maintenance charges etc.

Mutual Funds Vs Direct Equity

Question: I want to invest 2 lakh in share market for 10 year please suggest me best shares in infra, power, bank, FMCG?

Answer: There is one good thing & one bad thing about your question. Good thing is you want to invest for long term in equity but bad thing is you want to invest directly in equity rather than going through Mutual Fund Route. The biggest problem with direct equity is that a very small number of people can do it right. And people who can do it right don’t ask for suggestions or tips – they just research & make their investments. But most of the people just feel they’re right, till they get really screwed big time when market makes a turn. I am having a big confusion that why people think they can beat mutual fund managers? Direct equity demands too much attention & at times it’s too addictive. And when you can’t control yourself, it can ruin your portfolio and wipe out your savings.

Hemant Beniwal is a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER and his Company Ark Primary Advisors Pvt Ltd is registered as an Investment Adviser with SEBI. Hemant is also a member of the Financial Planning Association, U.S.A and registered as a life planner with Kinder Institute of Life Planning, U.S.A.
He started his Financial Planning Practice & TFL Guide Blog in 2009. "The Financial Literates" is a dream & mission to make Indians Financial Literate.

Regarding your question – Reliance Equity Opportunities is a diversified equity fund with multi-cap focus. Multicap means fund is not biased toward large cap or mid cap – but it is free to invest in any type of stocks. These are bit aggressive funds as fund manager talks calls depending on the future market outlook. This fund has given good returns in last 3 year & substantially higher than it’s peers. You can continue your investment in this fund but if you are thinking about further investment you should choose 1 large cap & other mid cap fund.

If i have SIP portfolio of 4-5 mutual funds which have very good track record ,then my queries are 1. How frequent should i review my portfolio 2. what should be avg annual return that i should expect from fund of each category , like largecap , midcap , multicap , secotrial 3. If after 1-2 years, in a review i find out that one of the fund is not performing upto the average (not sure which average should set as base ) , then should i switch to other fund from same sector or should i wait for it to perform All the funds are from very good fund houses and have decent record in past

It’s good to see that lot of people are taking interest in SIPs & asking questions regarding the same. Regarding your 1st query – you can review your portfolio on quarterly or half yearly basis but if you are following asset allocation you should try to rebalance it not before 6 months. Telling average return in future depends on many thing so quoting exact figures is like gazing crystal ball which is not possible but still you can expect 12-15% cagr returns from equity mutual funds if you horizon is 10 years. Mid caps can deliver bit better returns than large caps but also have some extra risk. If one of the funds is not performing for 2-3 years you should check the reason why this is happening – is there a change in fund management team, there thought process, any changes in overall objective, what about other funds in the same category. Also see what was the reason that you bought that particular fund – once you have done all this take a well thought decision.

My mutual fund agent is absconding from last 1 year. So I contacted some other agent through reference of my friend but he tried to sell me ulips. Can you please help how can I switch my funds & start new sips.

I am 33 years old and had invest in lot of LIC and also in ULIP plan of State bank of india and now I wants to start SIP of around 5000 to 1000o per month please advice should i go for one SIP or invest in different SIP

I am a regular investor in Birla Sun Life tax relief 96 growth fund and invest monthly Rs 10000 since last one and half years. Now my question is , how it this mutual fund doing? Should I hold it for long ie say 2 more years or should I look for some other mutual funds with better returns. Is it advisable to continue for long? Can you please advise. Also which are the best funds with long term planning say for 5-10 years.

Can you also give me your opinion on Benchmark S&P CNX 500 Fund – Growth Plan as I am also having a monthly SIP ( Rs 2500 ). Is it ok for long term investment with this mutual fund.

This is indeed a very helpful portal to access great information on financial planning. I am planning to get into SIP with HDFC for the following 2 finds 1) HDFC top 200 2) HDFC Prudence Fund

I am planning a SIP of 1000 and 3000 INR respectively initially, this is apart from my other financial savings. I have read the fund performance reports of the 2 funds, given the knowledge you possess could you please tell me if its worthy the effort ?

I agree that both the HDFC funds – Prudence and Top 200 (and even Equity) are managed by the same manager. But if the funds are the best performing funds in their respective categories, does it not make sense to continue with them rather than get a relatively low-performer from the same category? All these funds from HDFC have been very consistent in their performance and i see no reason that they won’t continue to do so. Your thoughts please!

Hi Sumeet Recently I had shortlisted some top performing funds of different categories.I found that there are some fund houses which have around four high performing funds.Under the circumstances one is tempted to have more than one fund from the same fund house in the portfolio.But the advisers generally do not favour having more funds from the same fund house.

I agree Anil that advisers do not favor having funds from the same fund house in the portfolio. But that’s exactly my question. As an example, if HDFC Prudence is the best performing fund in the balanced category, should one avoid it simply because one already has HDFC Top 200 or HDFC Equity?So do i diversify at the cost of reducing returns?I think it is not easy to answer that.

Hi Sumeet There is so much of difference of opinion among the advisers as for as investment in mutual funds is concerned that it leaves the investors confused.To give you an example recently I read the opinion of two advisers in two different magazines regarding investment in Reliance Growth Fund. One adviser was of the opinion that one should immediately come out of this fund in view of its deteriorating performance whereas other said that in view of its past history one should remain invested in this fund. As for as HDFC Mutual Fund is concerned it has perhaps the highest number of highly performing schemes. I think there is no option for the investor but to take his own call in such situations.

Hello sir, inspired by your site, started gaining knowledge abt mutual funds and willing to invest in equity funds. Ihave 2 goals right now, 1st is to accumulate 5 to 6 lacs inperiod of 5 yrs from now. 2nd goal is to accumulate 15 lacs in 10 yrs. Please suggest funds and the strategy. Whether to go for large cap, mid small cap or multi cap? Why mid and small cap funds offer high returns as compared to large cap? I learned abt diversification and it suggests me(citing example) not to include HDFC top 200 and HDFC equity in one portfolio bcoz their stocks are very similar. Am i right?

Hemant-Great article .Please let me know the fair comparison between ulips of INDIAFIRSTLIFE INSURACE COMPANY LTD and mutual fund,expecially mutual fund.. Thanks Hemant once again for such a nice post.

I know it is impossible to time the market.Last year when the sensex was around 20500 I made lumpsum investments in HDFC Equity Fund,HDFC Top 200 Fund,Birla Sunlife Frontline Equity Fund and UTI Opportunities Fund.My returns from these funds are still negative.On the other hand I am getting decent returns from my investments in Kotak Mutual Fund and ICICI Prrudential Fund where I am investing through monthly SIPs for the last three years.The lesson which I have learnt is that long term monthly SIPs even in average funds are much better than lumpsum investments even in the best performing funds.

Thank you Hemant for this wonderful article. It was absolutely great. The answer for the last question Mutual Funds Vs Direct Equity was too good. And you said it truly , investing in equity becomes addictive. it is better to invest in good MF for a long term .

hello sir, my husband is investing Rs.25000p.m. in 5-6 funds like HDFC top200, BSL frontline, DSPBR top100, Reliance growth, HDFC midcap opp. for last 2 yrs. through SIP. my husband is saying that he will redeem these funds when sensex will touch 21000 mark or more as the NAVs will be higher and keep on investing through sips. may be it will take 3 yrs or 5 yrs or 1 yr. and put that redeemed money in either any debt fund like PO mis or FDs or STP. but i want to stay invested for 10-12 yrs. and when i’ll need that money i’ll redeem it to achieve our goal. so i’m confused whether to listen to him or try to convince him. please suggest!

Hi Chandrani It does not appear to me that sensex is going to touch 21000 in near future.This is blessing in disguise for you and will allow your husband to remain invested in these good funds for a longer period of time.

I wanted to have a very straight and profeesional opinion about investing in Sundram Equity Plus NFO. I understand that it is advisable to invest in NFOs but sundaram is a good fund house and have a standing in the market. Your Opinion please to invest or not?

Who told you that it is advisable to invest in NFOs? I think this should be your agent who gets more commission when you invest in NFOs. NFO is the worst way to participate in Mutual Funds you don’t know about the track record of fund & NFOs with new themes are launched when there is fancy in the market. If you are investing from couple of years you should know what happened to IT funds that came in 2000 or Infra related funds that arrived in 2007. So in case of Sundaram Equity Plus they are trying to push gold which is fancy now a day. My suggestion is you should not invest in it & if you want to buy gold you can directly go for gold ETF or Gold Mutual Funds.

Before answering your question let me tell you that are you very big fan of ICICI Mutual Fund? Almost 70% of your money is going in a single fund house which makes your portfolio very risky. I think either you are dealing ICICI Bank/direct for investments or your agent is having some special interest in ICICI SIPs. Check what’s the case because it will definitely going to have big impact on your investment planning. Now coming to your question as you said you are going to invest for 10 years & will redeem after that. In mutual fund tax is applied when you redeem that amount & if it equity fund & redeemed after 1 years the whole gain is tax free. So in your case investment done in first 9 years will qualify for long term capital gain but the investments done in 10th year will come under short term capital gain & you have to pay 15% on the gains. My answer is according to current tax laws but they can change after DTC.

I had left a comment earlier which seems to have been lost.My question is regarding rating of Mutual Fund Houses and Equity Mutual Funds.Recently many personal finance magazines have given ratings to fund houses as well as equity schemes.However the ratings given by different sources are different.This is mainly because no common yardstick is used in rating.Each source uses a different methodology of ratings.Hence I would request you to write an article on the methodology to be used by the investors before investing to arrive at the correct combination of the fund house and the equity scheme.

This is really a tough one – different type of ratings from different sources are creating a big time confusion in investor’s mind. Some are using quantitative techniques other are using qualitative. Some are using different time horizons – so one is talking about 3 years other is talking about 5 years. Even in qualitative criteria are different someone giving preference to alpha & sharp ratio and some others are talking about sortino. To add confusion asset management companies are promoting it where they are leading. I think even I am increasing confusion by writing all this. I think there are 2 solutions for investors – one they should develop their own research which is easy to say but hard to do or two stick to one of the resource which you trust most. I will try to write something on this.

Hi Hemant Thanks for your response.I have observed that even the expert advisors have a herd mentality.Most of them restrict themselves to their favourite fund houses.Even the authors who write about funds and fund houses give higher ratings to their favourite funds and fund houses and adopt a strange methodology which the investors can not understand.The resources which I use for research are Value Research, Mint and OLM.I hope these are OK.

Hello Hemant Today I got a mailer from HDFC Mutual Fund regarding Flex STP.It says that it automatically increases the amount of investment in a falling market and decreases it in rising market.Some time back I had read in a Personal Finance Magazine that a similar concept is available in the case of SIP also.The idea behind this concept is to increase the returns by decreasing the cost of investment.The concept looks good but how it actually works in practice is not clear to me.Can you please throw some light on it?

Hi Anil, These products are based on value averaging concept – which is a good concept & sometimes looks even better than rupee cost averaging(SIP). First value averaging is not used in best shape in India – value averaging says when market is going down add more amount & when market is going up there should be provision to redeem amount. Adding more units is available in many systems but no one talks about redeeming amount. Second in case of a sharp fall you need to add lot of money – say you are running a 4 thousand per month SIP & next month they may ask you to add Rs 15000 which is not practical for everyone. Value averaging is also not helpful in secular bull runs. So when we will see the calculations on paper it may look amazing but I think SIP with combination of asset allocation will be a better option.

Hi Hemant Thanks for your response.Recently I read cover story of a leading Wealth Creation Magazine about SIPs.So far I had believed that one should invest 70 to 80 % of the investment in SIPs in Large and Midcap Funds.But in this article the author gives the breakup as 40 % in Large Cap Funds, 20 % in Flexi Cap funds, 20 % in Mid Cap Funds, 10 % in Value style Funds and 10 % in Infrastructure Funds.This has left me totally confused. I would like to have your take on it.

Hi Mihir, It’s good that you have a diversified portfolio & you are investing in it through SIPs. And for tax planning you are investing in ELSS funds – more or less everything looks fine. But your confusion has confused me. Why you are comparing an ELSS fund with a normal diversified equity fund – both have different investment purpose. My suggestion is if you want to add new fund for tax saving purpose go for HDFC Tax Saver otherwise you can choose between DSP Top 100 and HDFC Top 200 Fund.

Hi Mihir You seem to have special fascination for tax saving funds.Long term investment in equity funds is for wealth creation and not tax saving.For long term equity mutual fund investment select large cap funds from the list of funds given by Hemant for SIP.

Hello Hemant ji, I have a doubt regarding MFs, I took an ICICI pru blue chip through SIP( 5000) monthly . I have an account in hdfc bank .Last month the money deducted from my saving . I can see the mf in my bank detail. But this months what i noticed that the money ( 5000) which should go to ICICI pru , but has deposited back to my account, that means this month , i have not given any money to this sip. When I asked my bank cs , she told that you must inquire with ICICI bank. I called the ICICI bank cs , she is saying that I have not any account in this bank, and since I took this sip through hdfc bank so I need to put my question there. I am really confused whether my money is going to ICICI prue through sip or not , if it is going then why they returned back this month installment .please help.

Hi Sangeeta Sometimes after starting the SIP, fund house detects some problem in your SIP application or payment mode and reject the SIP.I think you should visit the office of your fund house ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund or the registrars CAMS to find out the problem with your SIP application and make the necessary correction or give a new SIP application to resume the SIP.Banks can not help you in this matter as they are responsible only for making the payments to the fund house from your account as per the mandate given by you.

Hi Hemant While considering investment in mutual funds we frequently come across the term diversification.However there seems to be no clarity on this aspect of investing.For some diversification means selection of different fund houses.For others it means investing in different types of funds.For some investing in three or four funds is enough for diversification.For others eight to ten funds are required for proper diversification.Terms under and over diversification are also frequently used.Can you please throw some light on this aspect of investment in mutual funds.

Hi, I have invested inNFO of following funds:- 1. religare business leaders fund-5000/- 2. religare PSU fund–10000/- 3. reliance gold saving fund–5000/- am planing to invest in SIP of reliance gold saving fundplease advise me its good or not and also advise how i can switch from one fund to another in same family.

Hi Pramod, Before switching anything switch your Mr Financial Advisor & if you want to say it was your decision to invest in these funds – my suggestion is start learning basics of investing. If we talk about your existing portfolio you already have a 25% exposure in gold so there is no need to add SIP in this fund. You have one thematic fund Religare PSU – such funds should only be part of once portfolio if you already have a strong portfolio with core funds. You have another large cap fund from Religare but again it is a poor performer. My suggestion will be replace these Religare funds with HDFC Top 200 & Fidelity Equity Funds and also start your planned SIP in them. Keep holding Reliance Gold savings fund but don’t increase your exposure in it.

Hi Hemant, I had some time with 1 of Agent from Aegon Religare, i asked which is best Ulips or Mutual funds, suddenly he started explaining that MF’s are not good at this time and 1 should not go for that…and said Ulips are good at moment from there company, explained the schemes which have higher premium’s yrly, i know why he is telling abt high premium schemes bcoz he get good commission from that till the policy exists. he also explained abt the Money back and Pension schemes…. but the point i like to tell is……….we should have minimum knowledge before meeting agents…if nt they simply make fools……….

i have taken term insurance from Aegon he started telling me big stories……..but i did not fall under this trap………..that for giving me some knowledge Hemant..i had full debate with him asked many Q, but he could not answered. bcoz he has to make money for him……………

What do you advice for a peron of 55 years of age with practically financilly sound and want to invest an amount (30,000) in mutual funds for a period of 5-8 years. My main concern is is it advisable to invest in equity mutual funds at this age.

I have been investing in SIPs for last 4 to 5 years.Fund selection is entirely on experience gained by online briefs or books. Donno the direction of my investment.I have a life cover of 35 lakhs taken care of.Request you to kindly review my investment and provide your feedback/suggestions. Thanx

Dear Hemantji! Thanks for all the efforts. I have a few queries. It would be nice if you can throw some light.

Recently started two Rs.1000 SIPs in HDFC Top 200 & HDFC Equity. Just went through all the comments, & understood they both are almost identical. Hope to discontinue any one. Which one would you suggest?

Also I went directly to the HDFC AMC office & inquired about DIRECT investment. The Representative there said I could invest either DIRECT or through an Agent. The She introduced me to an Agent sitting there & said that he will not charge anything from me. So I agreed. He filled ARN No. in the form. My query is what is the Agent’s interest in all this. I know he gets some trail commission from AMC, which would be pocketed by the AMC itself if done DIRECT. Does he have any other interest? Actually I want to know if I invest direct, would it be more beneficial to me or it will be same?

Other two things I want to know is about Parking Surplus Funds & Flexibility options in SIP Installments. I have Rs. 1 lac in Surplus in SB A/C which is earning 4%. Where should I invest this Surplus – in some Liquid or Debt Fund from where it can be credited to the SIP A/C. For this to happen does both Liquid Fund & SIP should be with same AMC. Kindly suggest a few Funds too in this regard & also what would be Tax implication in case of this type of STP.

Hi Amit Both HDFC TOP 200 and HDFC Equity are good funds.HDFC Top 200 is large and Midcap and HDFC Equity is multicap.Which one to have depends on other funds in the portfolio. It does not matter whether you invest directly or through an agent so long as you are not paying anything extra. For suggesting funds for your portfolio it is advisable to take the services of a financial planner.

Reg which option is better — Dividend payout, re-invest or growth–if investment tenure less than 2years ,maybe Payout better — the dividend amount you can put in some fixed income investment like PPF. With Div re-invest and growth options, there is a chance that if NAV is down at the moment you want to encash, you might get less. However, if investment tenure more than 2yrs, growth option best, I think. Your views please. regds

Hi Shreedhar Investment in equity mutual funds is done to meet the long term goals.Hence the horizon of investment is minimum of five years.For this purpose growth option is the best.Investment of less than two years comes under short term. For the short term investment in equity mutual funds is not desirable as it is very risky.

IT IS ALWAYS BETTER TO INVEST VIA SIP ROUTE SINCE IT HELPS INAVERAGING BUT COMBINATION OF BOTH SIP & LUMPSUM WILL ALSO YIELD BETTER RETURNS SINCE LUMPSUM CAN EB INVESTED IN EITHER MIP OR DEBT FUNDS & SIP TO BE INVESTED IN DIVERSIFIED EUITY FUNDS . THIS WILL HELP IN MITIGATING RISK ALSO.

Hi Ruta SIP is the best route for investment in mutual funds to meet your long term goals.The greatest advantage is that once you start a SIP you can remain invested for a long time without bothering about the short term ups and downs of the market.The greatest disadvantage of lump sum investment is that you become a hostage of market timing.While it will be foolish to invest lump sum when the sensex is at around 22000,it makes sense to invest at a level of around 17000.You can always invest some lump sum whenever there is a sharp correction in the market.Probably this is the best time to make some lump sum investment.

Hello, I am here for some advises from expert here. I have some amount ( 80,000) which I got by cancelling fixed deposit as it was gaining only 7 %. I would like to have your views , where to invest this amount ? Should I invest it again in bank FDs as the interest rates are high or should I invest it in lump sum to MFs as the sensex is down now . ( NB: already have a rd of 2000/monthly in bank for 2 yrs and 4 lakhs in Kisaan vikas)

I am thinking to invest for 10 to 13 yrs with expect ion of gaining 13 to 15 %

3. One more question , I am investing through MF distributor , do I need to pay any commission to him ? shall I directly invest through my bank or should I personally invest through each fund house . Why investing in MFs is so confusing? My mfs distributor told me that Investing through distributor , is better idea as I do not need to pay any charge for fund management , is he true? Please guide. Looking forward to hear from the experts. regards Sangeeta

Hi Sangeeta Sorry to learn that your husband has lost so much in trading.I would like to inform you that investing in mutual funds is much better than trading but still subject to market risks.Before you start investing you must have some risk appetite.Normally you should expect a return of around 12%.The core of your portfolio should have large cap and large and midcap funds.Satellite of the portfolio can have multicap and mid and small cap funds.I think you mean Birla Sunlife Frontline Equity which is quite good.The funds you have selected are quite good.You can add one multicap fund if you want. Once you have decided on the funds for your portfolio there is no need to invest through a distributor.You can always go to the offices of the concerned fund house and can get assistance from there in filling up application forms.

Hi Sangeeta, Just read your message – sorry to hear that you people lost Rs 7 Lakh in trading. Don’t feel offended by what I am going to write now – I don’t want to lose a good learner like you. See at one place you have lost a big money & on another place you have a hitch to pay financial advisor. This is a very common approach by people & it is called “Penny wise – Pound Foolish”. A good financial advisor would have saved you these Rs 7 Lakh & many more – people need to understand this. Being financial literate never means that you don’t need to hire financial advisor. Hiring a right financial advisor is a time consuming process but may be one of the most important thing in your financial life.

One more thing few people think that finding few good performing funds is Nirvana but how you will control your behavior. Then they will say we are very patient about our investments – we are investing since 2005 & we never sell in fear. (even in 2008 when market was down more than 50%) And they are very sure that they will not do this in their lifetime – so my question is which one was your equation in 2008: 1. Your income was 10 Lakh & your equity portfolio size 5 Lakh. Or 2. Your income was 10 Lakh & your equity portfolio size was 1 Crore. If your answer is 2nd you may not need investment advice from anyone. THINK

Thanks much Hemant ji and Anil ji, for your prompt reply. Yes I am also thinking to hire a financial adviser , but again not able to choose a good and certified adviser who can advise neutrally. Also I have a small baby to take care so really cant go office to office for purchasing funds, so buying funds from distributor seems good idea for me if I will not have to pay him .

I have been going through your posts and they have been most helpful. In 2006-2007 I got very much interested in investments and made a portfolio. Subsequently market crashed and then I got busy with work, and somehow I just didn’t keep up.

But now again I want to get into good investment options. Here is my portfolio

1. Is my mutual funds portfolio ok, should I continue with all or discontinue some of them and acquire new ones. 2. I want to take additional 3 to 5 SIPs. Planning on HDFC Top 200, DSPBR Top 100 Equity and some more. Could you please guide me. 3. Any other relevant advice,like any lump sum investment. In total I can spare about 40 to 50K for any lumpsum investment, exclusive of SIPs.

Hi Shardha Investments in equity mutual funds are done to meet your long term goals.When you started your investments did you have any goal in mind? It appears that you have randomly selected some funds and invested without constructing a portfolio. Normally a well designed portfolio should not have more than five to seven funds.SIP is the best mode of investment.Once you start investing you have to do it regularly and systematically.After you start investing you have to track your portfolio to ensure that you do not remain invested for long in a nonperforming fund. It appears that you have not followed these principals of investing.You have selected too many funds.In most of the funds you have done lump sum investments.Since you have not tracked your portfolio it has many nonperforming funds in it. To construct a proper portfolio please read the post – Best Mutual Fund For SIP.

I am a salaried executive aged 22 years, recently started my job and wish to invest in mutual funds but have some queries.

What is the difference in investment thro SIP and lumpsum (when market is low, like now a days). Is there any risk? Can I combine both at any period of time in future (as per availability of surplus funds like bonus etc.).

Secondly about time horizon, can I opt to exit any time/remain for more time, during the tenure of my investment. Suppose I start a SIP for 5 years initially, can I redeem my funds say after 4 years and on the other side, can I opt to extend it for 1-2 years more, if I wish to continue the investment

About taxation, at one place you mentioned, “So in your case investment done in first 9 years will qualify for long term capital gain but the investments done in 10th year will come under short term capital gain & you have to pay 15% on the gains”. How one can distinguish or calculate income of 1-9 years and of 10th year separately. Is it the income or investment that is subject to LTCG/STCG.

Hi Saumya It is good to know that you are planning to start investments in equity mutual funds just after starting your job.All mutual fund investments are subject to market risks.In the short term you may see a lot of volatility and returns from your investments may even be negative. But if you remain invested for a longer period of more than five years in equity mutual funds, there is a potential of creating wealth. SIP is the best mode of investment as you don’t have to bother about market timing.In lump sum investments you become a hostage of market timing.Yes, you can do some lump sum investment when you see the market correcting substantially.You can combine both modes of investment. You can select any tenure for your SIP and you can increase or decrease it as per your requirement.You can also redeem whenever you need money.You have to only see exit load and tax implications.In ELSS funds there is a lock in period of three years.

Thanks for the wonderful article. It was very good and gave a lot of information about the MF. I am 26 now and investing in the below funds for the past 6 months. Can you please let me know whether my selection is good. I would like to continute this below SIP for 10 years. 1)HDFC 200 Equity – SIP 1000 per month 2)HDFC Equity – SIP 1000 per month 3) Sundaram Select Midcap – 500 per month 4) HDFC Mid-Cap Opportunities Fund – – 500 per month

Please check whether my selection is good and i can continue for 10years.

Hi Karthikeyan Your fund selection is very good but the portfolio lacks proper diversification as you have selected three funds from the same fund house. Normally we should have not more than one fund from a fund house as having so many funds from the same fund house makes your portfolio risky.

Thanks for taking time and replying to my doubts. Could please expalin, What are the other funds that can be included in my portfolio(other Funds details) i can have 1 fund in a house and will stop the others(since i have more than one fund from a fund house ). You help is very much appreciated. Thanks a lot.

Hi Karthikeyan Since you are young and just starting your investments in equity mutual funds you can afford to have aggressive portfolio. Please select one fund from each of the categories mentioned in the post.To start with have one largecap fund, one large and midcap fund, one multicap fund and one mid and small cap fund.You can retain any one fund of HDFC Mutual Fund and replace others from other fund house from the list given.

Also, I have three SIPs of 1000/- each going per month since 2007, in Rel Div Pow, Rel Vision and SBI Contra. I want to discontinue Rel Power and start Rel Equity Opp for Rs 1000/-. For now I want to continue the Rel Vision and SBI Contra atleast till market picks up and I get a better ROI. Therefore I will have a total of 8 SIPs with an investment of 10000/- per month. I am looking at long term.

Please advice if my thinking is correct and whether the portfolio looks ok

Hi Shardha The funds selected by you for your portfolio are very good.However for a monthly investment of Rs 10000/- eight funds are too many and do not provide any benefit of diversification. This is only diversification of numbers and not of style. Moreover you should not have more than one fund from a fund house in your portfolio as it increases your risk.Hence I would suggest you to consolidate.You can merge your investment in HDFC Equity with HDFC Top 200 and Reliance Vision with Reliance Equity Opportunities.

I would like to have your valuable opinion with respect to my current Mutual Fund / SIP Portfolio, as mentioned below.

My plan is to build a corpus of Rs. 1 Crore within a span of 10 years. Hence, please advise the amount to be added to the present contribution / selection of funds, in order to achieve this target. I am 43 years old, working in a private sector company.

Thanking you,

Name of the fund Opton Start Date SIP Amount per month Holding Units Avg Price in Rs. Value at Cost in Rs.

Hi Ram Presently you have SIPs in five funds with total amount of Rs 9000/- per month. Considering annual return of 12% this is very low to achieve your target in 10 years.It is difficult for me to advise you about the amount by which you must increase your investment as I have no information about your income, savings as well as the other investments and expenses like insurance etc. Presently you are invested in five funds of Reliance Mutual Fund and two of these are sector funds.This makes your portfolio very risky.Moreover the performance of some of these funds is poor. To construct a proper diversified portfolio I would suggest you to read the post – Best Mutual Fund For SIP.

We have gone through your post “Best Mutual Funds for SIP” and found it most useful, as it clearly explains the criteria for selection of Mutual Funds.

My wife and I would like to invest a further amount of Rs. 40,000/- per month (Rs. 10,000 each in 4 funds) in SIPs. Accordingly, we have shortlisted the following Mutual Funds for investment through the SIP mode:

Large Cap:

• DSPBR Top 100 OR • ICICI Prudential Focused Bluechip Equity

Large & Mid Cap:

• HDFC Top 200

Mid & Small Cap:

• IDFC Premier Equity OR • Sundaram Select Midcap

Multi Cap:

• HDFC Equity OR • Reliance Equity Opportunities

We would appreciate your advice in order to proceed.

From the earlier portfolio presented to you, could you please suggest which funds we should exit from? We would be truly grateful for your opinion in this matter

Hi Ram You can have the following funds in your portfolio. 1 ICICI Prudential Focused Bluechip Equity 2 HDFC Top 200 3IDFC Premier Equity 4 Reliance Equity Opportunities. Have 60% allocation in core and 40% in satellite. Keep tracking the performance of your funds after starting your SIPs. The performance of the fund can be checked by comparing with its index, category average and peers. You can consolidate by merging your SIPs in Reliance Growth and Reliance Diversified Power with Reliance Equity Opportunities. If you do not need the money right now you can remain invested in the funds where you have done lump sum investments till the market turns.

Dear Mr. Hemant & Mr. Anil, Great knowledge base created on Mutual Fund investment by you. I thank you for the same as it proves to be a great help for person like me who is a new entrant in world of mutual fund. I have started investing in MF since June-11 onwards and request you to review my portfolio: 1) UTI Dividend Yield Plan: Rs.3000 p.m. (dividend payout); 2) UTI Master Value Fund: Rs.1000 p.m. (dividend payout); (I want to convert both the above funds to “growth option” after 1 year or even before) 3) HDFC Top 200: Rs.3000 p.m. (Growth);

I can invest further Rs.3000 p.m. (max Rs. 10000 pm). My MF investment time horizon is about 10 years. I want to create corpus for my child education, who is 8 years of age and is in 4th standard. My target corpus would be 30 to 40 lacs. Request your review on my existing portfolio and suggest changes (if any). Also suggest some funds for balance amount to be invested (Rs.3000 p.m.) looking to my set goal. My age is 36 Years. My average take home salary on monthly basis is Rs. 32000- Dharmesh Bhagat Vadodara, Gujarat.

Hi Dharmesh It is good to know that you want to construct mutual fund portfolio for education of your kid.I would suggest you to read the post – Best Mutual Fund For SIP for this.It is advisable to have select only one fund from a fund house. For your additional investment you can select one large cap fund.

Hi Dharmesh Both ICICI Prudential Focused Bluechip Equity and UTI Master Value are good funds. You can consider both these funds for investment. However please ensure that your portfolio does not have more than one fund from a fund house.

Can you please technically explain the exact difference between “dividend payout”, “dividend re-investment” and “growth” option. If I am targetting 30-40 lac corpus in 10 years can that be attained thru “dividend payout” or “dividend re-investment” or “Growth” option would be the best!. Please suggest with some examples (if any).

Hi Dharmesh If you are investing to meet your long term goals then growth option is the best. You should opt for dividend payout only if you want to use the money which you get by way of dividend payments. Please note that whenever you get some dividend payment, the NAV of the fund gets reduced to the extent of dividend payment. In dividend reinvestment the dividend declared by the fund is not paid to you but is reinvested to buy more units for you. Moreover from the next year the dividend payment is also going to be taxed. So it is best to stick to growth option only.

Dear Anil Kumarji, Thanks for your prompt response. I have already shared with you my MF investment profile which has two fund under dividend payout mode. One UTI Dividend yield fund & UTI master value fund. I invest fund thru my close friend but some how he is not convinced to convert these two fund into “growth” option for me. He is suggesting to move for “re-investment of dividend”. I am argueing for “growth” option. I am confused and don’t know what to do!.

Hello Anilkumar Ji, Can you please suggest me some best perfoming tax saving ELSS funds. I have to invest 40,000 p.a. Would it be advisable to invest in ELSS as it has lockin period of 3 years from each alloted units i.e. effectively it becomes 6 years (for total 3 years span). I am investing about 50,000 per year in EPS / VPF. Housing loan is now paid. hence gap of Rs. 40,000 has arised. Please suggest. Dharmesh

Thank you Anilkumarji…. One more doubt I want to get cleared…. Mutual fund units are now available in demat form also. If I open a demat account with a private DP like Sharekhan or say Jhaveri Securities and start SIP through them i.e. the DP would pick the money every month from my bank account and buy MF units from stock exchange and credit the same to my demat account….. would this be a safe and secured method??? I mean, going forward MF may also compulsorily get in to demat mode only….. What would be your advice sir……

Hi Dharmesh As far as investment in equity mutual funds is concerned it is best to keep the things as simple as possible. Construct a good portfolio and invest systematically every month via SIP route. There is no advantage of investing in mutual funds via demat account. I am hearing for the past ten years that investment in mutual funds is going to be made only through demat account. This has not happened and it is not going to happen in near future.

Hi Anil, My question is which is best among HDFC top 200 ie Large & Mid Cap: or HDFC equity ie Multi Cap. Can i have two funds from the same house. and otherone is that how i can judge whether the fund is not performing well just in 1 yrs of span as you said in former article. what are the decisive factor or criterion on which i can make judgement. as i am investing from 1.6 yrs in SBI magnum tax gain(g). but the return till now is not upto the mark in fact it is depressing (even in market high) it is not as par. hence i want discontinued this fund. If i withdrew sbi fund then is there would be any exit load. or will i get lumpsom amount just in single hand. i hear that in sip each installment should have 3 yrs span.

Hi Prakash Please read the post – Best Mtual Fund For SIP for selection of funds. Normally you should have only one fund from a fund house in your portfolio for proper diversification and to reduce the risk. After you have constructed the portfolio you must track the performance by comparing it with its index, average of the category and its peers.If you find that a particular fund consistently performs poorly based on this criteria then you should take corrective action.Moreover many rating agencies give star rating to funds.If you find that a fund begins to lose star ratings then it is the time to exit the fund. Yes the lock in period for ELSS funds is three years. This means that you have to remain invested in the fund for three years to claim tax benefits.This does not mean that you must contine with your SIP for thee years.Morover you will not get any tax benefits from such funds from next year.Hence you can stop your SIP now.You will be able to withdraw your money only after you complete three years.

Hi Suresh You have only given the name of the fund house and not the scheme in which you want to invest.Moreover, while investing all the funds in the portfolio have to be considered.One fund is not to be considered in isolation.

I have already started with IDFC Premier Equity, IDFC Mid & Small Cap and HDFC TOP 200 this month. The other three I will start after being sure that I am going on the right path. So my question to you is, whether my selection of funds is right or does it require any change. Also, I was not sure whether to have HDFC Equity or should I replace it either with HDFC Mid-Cap Opportunities or with DSP BR Micro Cap Fund.

Horizon: My horizon is long term (15 years) and since I don’t have too many responsibilities at this moment I am willing to take more risks in anticipation of greater returns.

2) Tax Saving & Insurance (Aim to take benefit under section 80(C) tax benefit of upto Rs. 100000) (i) PPF Account: Rs. 70,000 annually ( Should I stay with this or should I take Jeevan Anand for next 25 years) (ii) I have taken Jeevan Shree and am paying Rs.25000/ annum

3) Saving : I have also started a Recurring Deposit of Rs.10,000 per month for 1 year and the deposit will be used to fulfill the slot of Rs.100000 investment as lump-sum planned for each year. This strategy I wish to continue for years to come.

Kindly advise if I have designed the investment structure right and would like to know the possibilities of optimizing it further.

Hi Anu For an investment of Rs 6000/- per month you do not need five funds. Three will be fine.Moreover, you should not have more than one fund from a fund house. You can consolidate by selecting only one fund from HDFC Fund House and IDFC Fund House. Having recurring deposit to accumulate Rs 100000/- for lump sum investment does not make any sense. Systematic investment is the better mode.It will be better if you increase your SIP amount to Rs 16000/- per month.

Hello Sir, I Am very new to the Mutual funds and stuff, I don’t have too many responsibilities at this moment and can take risks where i would expect good returns in 3-5 years before marriage, these amount would be useful to my parents.

Hi Neha All funds in your portfolio are very good. However your exposure to gold is on the higher side. Normally it should not be more than 10%. This makes your portfolio very risky. Since you are young and prepared to take risk it should be fine. Hopefully your investment in gold may turn out to be good at the time of your marriage. Best of luck.

Respected Hemantji I am 45yr old and in govt service I alredy invest in these fund through sip 1.Rs 2000/ in HDFC TOP 200. 2.Rs.1000/ in HDFC MID CAP OPP.FUND 3.Rs.1000/ in ICICI PRU FOCUSED BLUCHIP EQUITY FUND 4.Rs.1000/ in TATA DIVIDEND YIELD FUND 5.Rs.1000/ in TATA EQUITY P/E FUND I want to discontinued in Tata dividend yield fund and tata equity p/e fund and start sip in RELIANCE EQUITY OPPORTUNITIES FUND Rs. 2000/ and rs 500 in Reliance gold saving fund. Pl. comment on my portfolio and give me any other advise my time horizen is 10 to 15 year when I will retire from service. Thanks

Some of the funds in your portfolio are consistent performers like the HDFC Top200, HDFC equity, UTI dividend yield.keep youeself invested in these fundds and in future try to increase your allocation to these funds.

As you are new to MFs, I suggest you to start with large caps only. You can include Frenklin Bluchip, IDFC premier equity, BSL frontline and other similars. In starting keep away to the secotrials funds.

Hi I am 22 years old and just started with a job. I plan to invest 5K per month in mutual funds. Infact, I already opened an account and made initial investments in different schemes today itself. I chose following funds: 1.) HDFC TOP 200 (1K PER MONTH) > LARGE CAP FUND 2.) HDFC EQUITY (1K PER MONTH) > MULTI-CAP FUND 3.) HDFC PRUDENCE(1K PER MONTH) > BALANCED FUND 4.) HDFC MONTHLY INCOME-LONG TERM(1K PER MONTH) > DEBT ORIENTED FUND Now, my questions are:

1.) Is my portfolio right?

2.) 1k which is not shown above is lying pending to invest in gold. Since I donot have demat account, I cannot buy gold etf. I was planning to invest in reliance gold fund but after reading one of your articles, I have put an idea on hold. Kindly suggest me on how to make investment in gold then???:O

3.) Now comes the main question. In order to set up SIP with fundsindia, I am facing some problem since they dont have tie up with my bank for auto debit (something like that). But I didnot want SIP in first place. I rather plan to invest myself in a disciplined way every month after watching market. Now the question is : Does it make any difference whether I invest in hdfc top 200 via SIP or myself invest every month(flexible in this case). I mean, by investing manually every month, am I missing some of the advantages of SIP like compounding returns, lesser maintenance charges by mutual fund house to SIP customers or anything like that..:O

4.) Also, I need to have tax rebate. What are the best investment options for tax savings with decent returns?? Initially, I wanted to add hdfc tax saver as well but lock in period of 3 years made me stay away from that.

Hi Monjo 3311 Only yesterday you had asked the same questions on some other post. Obviously you have copied and pasted these on this post. You should know where these questions were asked. Whenever I am able to locate I will let you know.

Very happy to see your guidance changing the way people are making their investment decisions.

I am 28 and want to start by investing 12.5 k per month in the below mentioned funds. Please correct them and reallocate them if you see any issues. Feel free to add or remove to make the portfolio correct. I want to continue investing for another 10 years through SIP.

Hi Mir2507 You have selected two tax savers. From next year you are not going to get any income tax benefits from these funds. Moreover your money is going to be locked for three years. You have selected two funds of HDFC mutual which is not the correct approach. You can consider these funds : 1 ICICI Prudential Focused Bluechip Equity Fund. 2 Reliance Equity Opportunities Fund. 3 HDFC Midcap Opportunities Fund. You can retain DSPBR Top 100. You can invest in tax savers for six months if you want and then exit and divert the investment to equity funds of your portfolio.

Thanks Anil. I will drop the tax savers and go with the below mentioned portfolio. Just a small question. (2) and (3) are mostly into midcaps and is it advisable to have 50% exposure to midcaps ? Will it do good to add another large cap and take the portfolio to 5 mutual funds ? Please clarify.

Hi Mir2507 Four funds will be fine. There is no need to add any other fund. Reliance equity opportunities fund is a multicap fund and not small cap fund. It is not necessary to invest equally in all the funds. You can invest more in large cap funds and less in multicap and mid and small cap fund. The exact allocation will depend on your risk appetite. Retail and growth option are fine.

I understood the difference b/w growth and re-investment option.I am doing SIP’s in UTI dividend re-investment plan.I want to know how will it affect my tax?I was mis-guided by the UTI person that dividend option is better than growth.Today i understood the difference.So please let me know about the taxes sir.

hi sir, i invested Rs.50000 in equity mutual fund about 2 months back.But now i noticed thar the total fund value has gane below the investment and now it stants to Rs.48000.I’m not happy with the situation.What should i do now?Please reply me as soon as possible.

I understood the difference b/w growth and re-investment option.I am doing SIP’s in UTI dividend re-investment plan.I want to know how will it affect my tax?I was mis-guided by the UTI person that dividend option is better than growth.Today i understood the difference.So please let me know about the taxes sir.

Hi Kirti Yes you can change your option without any problem. A transaction slip is attached to your account statement which gives you various options. You have to just tick on the growth option and deposit the slip at KARVY or UTI office. Don’t forget to to take acknowledgement.

I have today gone through an article in moneycontrol website about mutual fund investments. It says that the MF industry in India is approaching a standstill. The returns accumulated in the last 10years were lost in during the ongoing slowdown / fall in equity market as there are no enough talents to manage the funds properly.

I think this article is not completely true, what i know mutual fund managers are more equipped with tools and information than what they had 10 years back. Even the returns from some of the fund houses are 20-25 fold in the same 10 years time the article is suggesting. Infact i found there are very good fund managers available with many fund house having different view points and have proven their perspective as well. Probabaly prashant jain (HDFC) would be on highest ranks as he handle 4 largest funds of industry simultaneously. Also fund managers of DSPBR, IDFC , ICICI, Franklin are great return earner.

Hi Padmanabhan Investments in equity mutual funds are subject to market risks. The returns given by a mutual fund are not only dependent on the talents of fund managers. The fund house also has a role to play. In good fund houses systems are in place so that the role of an individual fund manager is considerably reduced. If the market crashes even a good fund house and a star fund manager can not do any thing as they are not magicians.

Dear Hemant Ji.. i am confused to invest in equity/gold/mutual fund/LIC policy/Child Plans, there are so many products in market to invest. my question is where i get highest return in next 15 years subject to risk. i have to invest for my daughter education, her marriage etc but confused to choose right track. i can invest Rs 2000 monthly and i am a Govt emplyee please help in this regard

Hi, prashant chaudhary There are no plans which can give you highest returns and no body give guarantee for that. All plans which comes from insurance companies are having their own charges which are on higher side compare to mutual funds. So invest in mutual fund for decent returns which beats inflation in long run as well as build some corpus for any plans you have. First thing you do is to plan how much you will need for your daughter’s education and marriage using tool available on https://www.tflguide.com/2011/04/franklin-templeton-family-solutions.html

This will give you rough estimated amount you need to invest for your all future plans. They are all inflation adjusted values so it will help you in planning things in a better way. Also try to diversify your investments in various investment products (equity/ debt) according to your risk appetite. I hope you have got your answers, of course Hemant will give you more insight into this.

Thanks for your comments. The article in the moneycontrol was written by the fouder of investors are idiots (crazy website though).

I was a trading in Commodity & Nifty futures but slowly realised the risk in it. After losing a handful of money in trading I happened to go through various articles of Hemant which are really eye-openers. Now I am investing on HDFC & Reliance SIPs.

But this article and the website is finding faults in mutual funds in a methodological way and hence I thought of seeking tflguide’s opinion on the same.

I would like to pitch in as i can see some clear mistake in your investment which many people can make. There is no investment diversification. Also one time investment can go wrong. Instead do STP if you have some spare money to invest. You are heavily investing in one fund house which can go wrong anytime. Also there are many funds which can not be handled easily. You need both diversification in style and across fund house. Consider investing 70% in large and large and mid cap fund and rest in mid cap/small cap/multi cap funds. Do remember to diversify across fund houses. I would suggest following 1) ICICI Pru focused blue chip or Franklin bluechip (Large cap) 2) HDFC Top 200/ UTI divident yield (Large and mid cap) 3) Reliance Equity opportunities/ HDFC Equity/ Reliance regular savings fund (multi cap) 4) IDFC Premier equity or DSP balckrock small and midcap or DSPBR micro cap.

This is just example of how you can select the funds, better research on valueresarchonline.com and find it your self. I hope Hemant will also help you in this.

Hi Soma Giri Although I can not find fault with any of the funds you have selected but Purvesh is right, by keeping all your eggs in one basket you are taking a huge risk. Normally you should not have more than one fund from a fund house in your portfolio. By investing lump sum you become a hostage to market timing. Fortunately your investment in lump sum is not much and it has been done when the market is down. So you may not have much adverse impact.

Hi I am 21. I started reading abt mutual funds for the past six months. I have selected some funds in which i want to start sip for the coming years.I need your help so that i should not land up in a bad mutual fund. I am a regular reader of this website. please don’t hesitate to tell my flaws. Core-9000 satellite-5000(65 percent core and 35 percent satellite) ICICI Prudential Focused Bluechip Equity 4000 Large cap HDFC Top 200 Fund 3000 LARGE CAP AND MID CAP Birla Sun Life Dividend Yield Plus – Growth 1000 MIDCAP AND SMALL CAP IDFC PREMIER Equity 2000 MIDCAP AND SMALL CAP HDFC prudence 2000 Balanced

2. And some 1000 every month to gold etf? Tell me the taxation for Gold ETF and Gold physical gold. I have a demat acc also. I am a long term investor. which mode of buying will attract low charges? Thanks for your valuable advice in advance.

Hi Vignesh It is good to know that you are thinking of investing in mutual funds. Your fund selection is very good. I have only a few points. It is better to invest only in one fund of a fund house.So you can select one from two HDFC Funds. If you are keen to invest in a balanced fund you can also consider HDFC Balanced fund. Regarding sector funds instead of investing in Reliance banking you can consider Reliance Pharma. Investing in physical gold can invite wealth tax. You can consider Gold ETF or a monthly SIP in a Gold fund.

Hi I want to know your comments on my core and satellite approach . Is that good? 1. should i need to increase my core portfolio more by decreasing the midcap and sector? 2. Taxation of Gold Etf and Gold Mutual funds while Redemption? In which one Brokerage will be less?

3.Kindly guide me as i am new to invesments. and also suggest me some books regarding stocks, Mutual funds and personal finance. Regards Vignesh.

Hi Vignesh Your core and satellite approach is correct. Since you are a young investor you can take more risk. There is no need to change your allocation between core and satellite. As you are new to investments please go through all the posts of Hemant. Articles are also available on Gold Mutual Funds and ETFs. For Mutual Funds you can read Mutual Fund Insight. For stocks you can refer to Wealth Insight.You can also visit Value Research website. For Personal Finance many magazines like Outlook Money are available.

Hi Mahesh Birla Sunlife Midcap and Reliance Growth are nonperforming funds. Before investing check the track record of the funds. Moreover, you don’t need eight funds in your portfolio. Three or four funds are good enough.

hi i am going to start investing 1000$ every month SIP – i want to know is it better to diversify in 10 different types of funds i.e. 100$ each fund eg; or Franklin Templton Global return, Schroders emerging market, World mining fund and like this 7 other funds or putting in 2 or 4 funds with 20 % 0r 30% allocation.

I am 25 yrs old and willing to invest through SIP’s, either in HDFC, Birla sun life or ICICI pru.. Can u please help me out to find the best SIP plans to look into.. My investment will be Rs.5000 every month for minimum of 3 years.. Then i can increase rapidly..

i had a Question, yet a novice in investments so please bear with me, i have invested in (ULIP) Max NY – Capital Builder – Growth Super Fund (SIP) the duration is for 20 years started since 25/4/2010 , was told by the agent its a pretty good scheme, wanted to know 1) if it is worth an investment and 2) if i can reduce the duration to 10 years, please advice, thanks

Hi Amit, This is an old trick used by Mutual Fund Agents – Tax Fund When no tax saving needed. As Agent gets more revenue so he sacrifices your liquidity, assest allocation & returns. There is no way to redeem HDFC Long term Advantage fund as it is having compulsory lockin of 3 years. You can’t exit it even by paying any penalty so forget about this money. But you can definitely withdraw money from HDFC growth fund which is a normal diversified equity fund. There may be 1% exit on the units which you have purchased in last 1 year plus there can be a 15% Short Term Gain if you have some short term gains.

I don’t know whats your age, but at any age Gold should not be core part of portfolio( at max 5-10%). Are you aware of advantages and disadvantages of gold fund? If not please read that first. One more thing your portfolio requires diversification, as you are investing in two funds of same fund house. Also from FY12-13 tax benefit of ELSS fund will go away, so you need to adjust that also. As a general rule your portfolio should be divided in equity and debt according to age (for example for a 30 year old general rule says 70 equity and 30 in fixed income). But this depends on risk taking capacity of person.

Dear Hemant, I have taken insurance policy for my father in Reliance, a policy called RLIC-Highest NAV Advntg. From last one and half year i am paying premium of Rs. 25,000 /six months. So till now i paid 75,000 but the present fund value is 60,458 Rs only. I am worried whether to continue or exit. Please help me with your kind suggestion.

Hi Mr Reddy, Highest NAV products were grossly mis-sold as highest return products. Almost all insurance companies launched such products in last 2-3 years. Even recently it was in news that IRDA is seriously thinking on discontinuing such products. Your reliance fund is on the same line. You should expect returns in comparison to debt not equities. If you are not satisfied with the product you can plan to surrender it. Polices that were launched last year have option to surrender the policy even after 1 year but you will get surrenders value after completion of 5 years. You can talk to your agent regarding the same.

Hi Hemant, I found your blog very informative and insightful. Thank you very much! I have a question about the “Expense ratio” in mutual funds. If there is a huge portfolio turnover, is the turnover cost included in the expense ratio or that is separate from that? Secondly, I read in several places that huge portfolio turnover increases the unnecessary expense compared to a “Buy and hold” strategy. But if the bottomline performance is good and returns are better (For example DSPBR Top 100), does it matter if the manager churns the portfolio aggressively, unlike funds like Franklin Bluechip?

I had invested 10000Rs. in HDFC Long Term Advantage Fund – Dividend in 2006. I have received few dividends and now the NAV has dropped from 45 to 29. Please let me know when to exit from the mutual fund as I feel this is not the right time to come out of it. Also is it prudent to allocate additional funds into this again to make up for the reduction in NAV? Your advice please…

You are super gr8 financial path man…you explain each and every doubts so clearly like water. I have taken whole day reading this whole page, understanding each and every individuals requirement. I am overwhelmed.

Anyways I am an new investor, after reading all above, i have finalised to invest as SIP for 1000/- each on

Since the current market is down with 20%, should i start investing now for approx 3 yrs.

And I am also planning to invest 50,000 on Baroda Utsav Deposit Scheme with a Rate of Interest: 9.35 % per annum & Period of Deposit : 444 days? Should i go ahead with this.

Since i am non-married with age 25, what type of health insurance & tax is perfect for me.

I dont trust mutual fund agent for their transparency on the fund nor do i have demat account, is their anyway to invest on above listed funds, somebody mentioned fundsindia.com (or any other….pls mention) is it safe to start with.

Hey Hemant, where are the reply on the above asked doubts (other then FD’s). I was seriously looking out for your reply from a long time. This is not done, hemant. 🙁 . If you want any more specifications about me, do let me know. I am in 10% bracket tax.

Sir You mentioned as under: What Documents would be required to apply to these bonds? If application in made for allotment in physical form, the following documents would be required: ■Indian Passport ■PAN Card issued by Indian Income Tax Department ■Overseas address proof: Such as utility bills, driving license, bank details. In case of PIO how can Indian Passport be produced? These are U S Citizens. Kindly clarify.

Very good information Hi, i want to know that if i am ready to take some risk ( time horizon – 7-10 years), then those sectors (theme fund) like infra, global opportunities or power which are hammered today, should i start investing in them? like can robeco infra, reliance diversified power, sundaram energy opp, bnp paribas overnight, fidelity international opportunities? I assume that in 7-10 years certainly the time will turn and they will perform better.

I started investing Rs 5000 from Nov 11 in different mutual fund by Sip which was done through one of my broker . I am getting transaction charges of Rs 25 every month in all mutual fund. So want to know how can i recover all the charges or can come out of this as this charges being reducing value of investment, can i continue to existing fund but switch to online transaction as there is no charges?

Hi Mahesh, It looks that your agent has opted for some small upfront payments from AMCs – talk to him regarding this. Your portfolio looks good so I will suggest you to stick with him as overall guidance is more important in comparison to small charges.

I am investing every month Rs 5k through Sip in various mutual fund from Nov 2011 and was from agent. So every month I am getting charged of Rs 25 as transaction charges which is reflecting in my statement of all mutual fund.

Kindly suggest what should I do as this charges are getting deducted every month and can i withdraw all fund from agent or switch online without discontinuing existing fund.

hi hemant— i am investing in fidelity equity fund,hdfc top200,rel eqty oppor,rel growth,franklin prima fund,icici pru discovery fund since 2005 via S.I.P mode..i need to take out all the money in 2016.as sensex is crumbling what sd i do?can i expect sensex to climb to 21000 in future within 2016 so that i get gd amount on my withdrawal?pls suggest

I have bought a Bajaj Allainz New Unit Gain Policy (ULIP), my net investment is 60K in 4years (15K x 4) and today the fund value is 43K, i want to know should i still invest further or wait to for NAV increase to a certain level that makes my investment fruitful ? Pl Note: The surrender value charged for this policy is 29.5% of the first premium.

Hi Ganesh, If you have shown this policy for tax benefit under section 80 C – surrender value will be taxed if you surrender before 5 years. If you think you want to withdraw because market is not performing – its not the right time to do it. But if you think product choice was wrong – you can stop paying the premiums & withdraw the amount at later stage.

Thank you for the suggestion. I was comparing Franklin Blue Chip and Quantum Long term

1. It appeared that Quantum Long Term Fund consistently gave much higher annualised returns ( about 15 %) than Franklin Blue Chip (about 9 %). While I understand that past performance is no guarantee in the future, the returns appear to be consistent. Are you suggesting based on my portfolio that I should opt for Large cap Franklin Long term instead of the diversified Quantum Long term fund

2. I was looking at value research figures and was confused about what ‘annualised’ returns are and what ‘yearly’ returns are. While the annualised returns are in the range of 15 %, the yearly returns vary from gain of 100 % to loss of 50 %. The yearly returns for both funds appeared to be similar while there was large variation in the annualised returns

3. The risk grade of quantum long term fund appeared to be below average compared to franklin long term fund.

Since i do not have any exporsure in Debt funds and Gold ETF i would like to invest in the same. Would it be worth investing in IDFC Premier equity as well. Kindly suggest me a good Debt Fund and a Gold ETF as well

Thanks for this article. The article covers the subject completely. Still I need to ask you : ‘In case I have financial goals set for 20 years from now, then which funds you suggest, I mean should I consider the funds from Large Cap, Mid & Large Cap or Mid Cap ?’

Thanks Manish, although the suggested article clears all the points. still I believe its better to seek advise of a FP before deciding my portfolio. There are so many large cap and mid cap funds so I am unable to decide which to opt for. Please guide if I have Rs. 6000 to be invested in equity diversified funds then which funds to opt for ? I already shared that my time frame for investment would be long, that is 15-20 years. HDFC Top 200 is Large Cap and I am investing 2000/mth Is DSP BR Opportunity a good fund ? Or else which 2 other funds one large cap and one mid cap should be opted ?

hi nishi u can also see this article “best mutual fund to invest in 2012” if u already saw this article then while selecting the fund select one fund from each fund house like u have mentioned one hdfc top 200.in similiar way u can select other funds from each fund house.create ur portfolio and before investing confirm ur funds from hemant sir or anil sir?

Hi nishi yes u selected the right funds. for the beginning its ok to pick the few funds from each category and then slowly u can add few more funds for diversification,regarding debt funds along with ppf u can go for fmp(fixed maturity plan) if u r in a highest tax bracket fmp is better than bank fd,also u can take the advantage of double indexation benefit for more deatails u can read the article fmp vs bank fd.also download the consolidated factsheet from the best mutual fund article.

Although I have no clue about your fund selection, but I believe you can increase the SIP amount in the same funds if you want to increase the investment amount in Mutual funds. There is no need to start a new SIP for this. You can check for this option when next month SIP will be due.

Hello Hemant, I have one doubt.. Suppose while investing in mutual fund, i have long term goal, say 15-20 years.

If i do profit booking, i may loose benfits of compounding. or if i dont do the same, it may happen that when I want money in 10-15 years time frame I may have to redeem in a phase where the markets can be down thus fetching me low returns.

So my question is shall i do profit booking in Mutual fund, when our mutual fund reaches to that profit %…or stay invested for 15-20 years.?

The strategy of profit booking rest on your goals. If you do not need immediate money then even the profits will have to be invested for wealth accumulation. Power of compounding works very well for long term investment and so investing for the period will be appropriate option.

Hello I am new to this SIP. I have saving of INR 10000 pm from my current salary, so shoud i have SIP? Kindly suggest to have good portfolio. Also one question that suppose after 1/2 yr i would like to discontinue the SIPs then what will happen? all invested amount will be lost or will be something else?

SIP or systematic plans works well if you align it with your long term goals. If you have quantified your goals then you will have clarity on the amount of savings required to reach them. For creating a good portfolio you should read this

Respected Hemantji I am 45yr old and in govt service I alredy invest in these fund through sip 1.Rs 2000/ in HDFC TOP 200. 2.Rs.1000/ in HDFC MID CAP OPP.FUND 3.Rs.1000/ in ICICI PRU FOCUSED BLUCHIP EQUITY FUND 4.Rs.1000/ in TATA DIVIDEND YIELD FUND 5.Rs.1000/ in TATA EQUITY P/E FUND I want to discontinued in Tata dividend yield fund and tata equity p/e fund and start sip in RELIANCE EQUITY OPPORTUNITIES FUND Rs. 2000/ and rs 500 in Reliance gold saving fund. Pl. comment on my portfolio and give me any other advise my time horizen is 10 to 15 year when I will retire from service. Thanks

Mutual Funds have different categories like large cap, multicap, mid cap,balanced and long term debt. A diversified portfolio is created when you choose among these and avoid repeating too many funds from the same category. Review your portfolio keeping this objective. You can also read on ho wt create an investment portfolio here-

Hi My query is regarding performance of equity fund. If an equity is not performing well and it is not giving more return than other equity fund what may be the reason and what steps can a fund manager should take to improve his returns?

There can be different reasons for fund underperformance. Wrong calls by fund manager, underperformance from some sectors, economic scenario etc. The fund manager act as per the situation and mandated investment objective of the scheme.

Hi, My question is i have bought three sip of SBI magnum tax gain- Dividend , ICICI prudential tax plan- Dividend and SUNDARAM tax saver – Dividend. on May for Rs 1000 respectively. Now how can i found the status of all the three funds. They send me statement every month but it has written Amount, Nav, Price and units. how can i calculate the value of my fund.

Hi, I,m interested in SBI GOLD GROWTH fof.. I want to invest 20000 as a one time and Sip of two thousand for three year. Im newbi never invested befor in MF. Shall go ahead or wait to get marke stable.

Before investing in Mutual funds its important to understand the categories available and how risk return characteristics vary. Thsi will help you to choose the right scheme which can meet your goal. A gold ETF is a better proposition then Gold FOF due to lower charges. Also, if you have to withdraw the corpus after three year then its wiser not to aim for higher returns and choose a category which is not highly volatile. Look at avenues from debt mutual funds with this time horizon.

I WANT TO KNOW FROM WHERE CAN I FIND NAV OF LAUNCH DATE ?, I WANRT TO KNOW SINCE CURRENT NAV OF TWO FUNDS IS Rs.221 & Rs. 27 RESPECTIVELY ALTHOUGH BOTH FUNDS WERE LAUNCHED IN SAME YEAR 1995. & ALSO NAV OF ONE FUND IS QUOTING Rs. 1601.

Hi Hemant I transact HDFC MF online. After switching units of one MF to another MF I cannot redeem the switched-in units for many days as they are not shown as “free”/”available” for redemption. Only when they appear as free after many days I can redeem them . Why is this delay in showing the units as free to redeem? Is it some rule common to all MF providers? Thanks.

Hi, I have invested for a period of three years for Reliance Growth Fund (with dividend option as reinvestment) , Reliance Vision Fund (with dividend option as reinvestment) and in the month of July I stopped investing in it, but I did not yet redeem it. Recently , I could see that the funds have raised for sometime and slowly they are coming down. I am not sure, if I can hold in it for some time or redeem, my intention was to make a partial payment of housing loan which I had taken, this makes me to think again. Please provide help in this regard. Regards, Phani

If the objective was to repay your home loan then you should have moved out from the funds earlier due to the risk you are facing now and should have kept money in a liquid account. Nevertheless, you should repay your liability if its not in manageable limits.

I am 25 & just secured my life wid term insurance,now want to do investment to earn good returns,,kindly suggest me investment planning one should do to live comfortable life like in mutual fund & its duration, & any other plans like pension,RD,etc. Thanks for excellent article.

hi I invested Rrs 10000/rs in 2008 on 174.50 nav in principle tax saver mf till the date that fund is struggling to get that height of nave this fund is constantly performing bad now please tell me what should i do with this shall I sell it in loss because I don’t think their is any point to hold it if yes for sell please recommend any best fund ,I don’t want any other elss now ..

Dear Sir, I want to invest in Quantum long Term Equity Fund SIP. Is that good for me? Or invest in another. I alrady invested in DSP blackrock top 1oo Equity,HDFC Equity,ICICI prudencial Focused Bluechip Equity.

I want some clarification regarding liquid funds. It seems that it gives about 9%+ returns. an parking money in there for about 1+ years time will consider as long term investment in terms of taxation.

Now my question is that suppose i invested rs 1,00,000 (Rs. 10 NAV) and i know that after 1 year 1day, i would get 1,09,000 (assuming 9% interest)… I have also heard about Dividend Distribution Tax to be about 27.xx% incase of liquid funds.. so my question here is that… does the latest NAV value on the websites reflect the deducted taxx amount ? or during withdrawal , i will get less than 1,09,000.. ??

in other words… Whatever the NAV value is, thats the EXACT value i will be able to withdraw right ? Or any deeductions/….. I am only considering 1+years of investment… Please advice..

I am planning to park my surplus funds in there which has been sitting in my bank at 4% interest, also the income will have a benefit of indexation during taxation, and i am already under a higher tax bracket…..

I already have investments in Equities , but i would also like some VERY LITTLE RISK, liquidity option for my surplus amount in saving bank account… in short, i would like to use the liquid funds as my saving bank account.. please suggest…

Investment in Debt Mutual Funds for more than one year is long term and so Long Term Capital Gains Taxation is applicable. The NAV of dividend option on a particular day will be post the dividend declaration.When you redeem your money then you receive the valuation as per respective day NAV. If you have opted for dividend payout then you would have received your dividends as they are declared after deducting DDT. In case you opted for reinvestment then the dividend after DDT are reinvested in the scheme where you earn capital gains. Now, based on when these dividends are reinvested the short term or long term capital gains tax will be applicable on these units. Yes if the investments completes one year and there are capital gains, you can claim indexation benefit. Read this to know about the funds-

As per my understand based on your explainination, i think it is safe to assume that the %age returns that are posted on the respected websites like 1yr, 2yr, 3yr cagr are all after deducting the DDT. .. and the DDT is not applicable on Long-Term LIquid Funds..

The returns posted on the websites are for two options-Growth and Dividend. The taxation will not factor in growth cause that’s respective to an individual liability and paid by them only. The dividend option will have taken the dividend declared into consideration since the NAV drops after that by the same amount. DDT is applicable wherever there is dividend declaration in debt funds be it short term or long term.If you are investing for more than one year then you can take a growth option where indexation benefit will be available on the gains you will make which will reduce your tax liability.

Charges like fund management are deducted by each Mutual Fund Company. However the method of deduction is based on the total corpus.But there have been recent changes where some of these charges have been increased for investors.

Hi The article seems a really nice and informative one for someone like me.

To be precise I am supposed to begin my mutual fund investments from next month. I am 30 and I have chosen two plans in SIP 1. SBI Dynamic Bond Fund for 5 years (2000 monthly) 2. SBI Emerging Business Fund for 7-8 years (2000 monthly)

You should consider a balanced fund which has a mix of equity and debt. For beginners these are ideal funds to start with and once aware you can look at creating an investment portfolio from different categories.

I am salaried person and new in market as a investor in MF through SIP.

I would like to invest 6000 per month in MF through SIP.

Hence, could you please suggest me on few below questions.

1) In Which MFs shall i have to invest and how much? 2) Which period shall i have to opt for good return 5yrs / 10yrs or… ? 3) Can i withraw or stop SIP in future for any reason? if yes then when (means after how many years )? 4) Can i increase SIP investment amount in future for the running SIP or i have to buy new one? 5) Which is the better one? Equity? Debt? Balanced? or etc.

I am 30 years old employed person , i would like to invest 2000 per month in Mutual fund (SIP), for 20 years, could you please suggest me which plan is good. also after 20 years how much can i expect.. please reply.

I have recently started a SIP in ICICI pru Balanced Advantage Fund of Rs. 4000/- I got account statement where I found that they are charging Rs.25 every month as transaction charge. SIP purchasing value is 3975/- I have other SIP’s also like HDFC, Birla Sunlife, DSP etc. but they do not charge anything. Why ICICI charging?

Hi I have HDFC SL ProGrowth Maximiser – Highest NAV Guarantee Fund (HDFC) from 20/09/11.. locking period is 10 years but min lock period is 5 year, next year i guess i can withdraw policy equivalent to market value. I urgently need money, my question is can i withdraw or sell this policy before 5 years which is now and if not after 5 years which is next year it is not giving returns same as FD also , please advice? .. Thanks in Advance.

The illustrative examples given make even a lay man understands the stages before eventual investment. May I request you to elaborately explain the term indexation benefits in case of debt fund with specific examples.

hi.. i have started a SIP of 1000 rs in Franklin build india fund and of rs 1000 in Birla MNC. Also have invested rs 7000 in uti transport and logistic through SIP. Should i continue with UTI fund or start SIP in any other fund. I want to increase my SIP amount up to 6000 per month. Please suggest.

I want to invest in sectorial fund like SBI Pharma/Reliance Pharma through SIP mode. Is it wise decision to invest in Pharma Sector? Should I move ahead with same or move in another fund. I am already investing in diversified mutual fund since last 4 years. Please give me the best suggestion. Your valuable response is awaited.

hi, i had a ULIP of HDFC pro growth plus, i invest 50,000 pm, for past 4 years, it was a income fund(debt), it gave me a lousy growth, should i change it to mix of opportunity fund 60% and income fund 40% for long term wealth creation, or should i leave this ulip after 5 years and coninue it to grow without withdrawing the fund.

Never mix insurance & investment.You should not expect more than 5-6% from Ulip or any other insurance product. You should pay 5 premiums so that you can withdraw the amount without any charges.Surrender your policy if your fund value is higher than your investment amount after 5 years.

Hello Sir as sir i m not too much aware about mutual fund, but by going through your answer I got some knowledge. sir i invested in sbi and hdfc mutual funds- 1. sbi blue chip 2. sbi magnum 3. hdfc mid cap opp. 4. hdfc tax sever above all funds of Rs.1000/- each sir kindly suggest whether i m on good way or not to get good profit.

I am Deepak 29 years old. I have buy 7 mutual schemes – DSP BlackRock Micro Cap Fund – Regular Plan(1000), Birla Sun Life Frontline Equity Fund(1000), ICICI Prudential Focused Bluechip Equity Fund (G)-1000, Canara Robeco Emerging Equities Fund – Regular Plan – 1000, Tata Balanced Fund – Regular Plan – 1500, Mirae Asset Emerging Bluechip Fund – Regular Plan – 1000. As there are so many mutual fund schemes I have purchased now I am going to close Canara Robeco Emerging Equities Fund – Regular Plan – 1000, and put all the amount of this scheme in DSP BlackRock Micro Cap Fund – Regular Plan(1000) and will continue with only DSP BlackRock Micro Cap Fund – Regular Plan(1000); is am doing right thing? Because both the schemes are under small & mid cap category so instead of keeping both I will keep only one i.e., DSP BlackRock Micro Cap Fund. Also for Large cap category I have purchased Birla Sun Life Frontline Equity Fund (3000) & ICICI Prudential Focused Bluechip Equity Fund (G) – (1000) so I am going close one of them and continue with only one scheme kindly suggest which I should continue. My intention is to keep minimum schemes and take advantage of cumulative amount. Is I am going in right direction? i am going for long term (7-10 years) with these schemes kindly advice.

So my question is that, in this rising market where the sensex is about to reach 30k mark, should I discontinue my SIPs till the time sensex comes down? I won’t be withdrawing the corpus already invested in mutual funds. Should I wait for market to go down and restart my SIPs? My investment horizon is relatively long, atleast 7-8 years from now or may be even more Looking forward for your guidance on this matter

Dear Aditya, We never know where this rising market will stop so it is advisable to keep invested in mutual funds through sips. In a falling market, you will get more units. I will also suggest you get in touch with a Financial Planner for portfolio review and rebalancing.

I start my investment in Mutual fund 4 year back.And as we can see the sansex grow now a days. I learn, mutual fund returns better and better as time passes. After 4 year when I calculate the gain it is 2.25 time as the normal RD interest. Now I will increases my investment as I can. Thank you Mutual fund.

Dear Deepak, You can not get a regular income in growth option. To get a regular income, you can choose SWP (systematic withdrawal plan). You can fix a certain amount as per your requirement & that amount will be credited to your bank account on a monthly basis.

Hi Hemant, I was wondering waht happends to my mutual fund investment incase the fund closes? Do I lose the money i invested? Or does the value of the MF get transferred to my bank account as per the lastest NAV?

Hi, My Name is Ravi kumar and I’m 25 Years Old. I have started Investing in Mutual Fund through SIP. My goal is to create a corpus of Rs 2 crore in 20 years. Currently I’m Investing 4000 every month and requested for 2 New SIP’s. Kindly Review my Portfolio and Let me know If I need to make any change in my current portfolio and which all new SIP’s I need to add in my Portfolio as I want to Increase my Investment up to 20,000 every month. I’m thinking to add some Large Cap fund in my portfolio as I came to know that one should always Invest 40-50% in Large Cap Fund. I’m ready to take some risk.

Hi all, I have recently started to buy SBI mutual funds through Systematic Investment Plan, for each transaction of SBI mutual funds meaning for every month of RS 5000 they are ( icici bank deducting RS 350) from my account. Similarly, on other funds, it is deducting RS 34.99 on each transaction. Looks it does not worth for my investment. Do I need to maintain something in order avoid these deductions on every transaction, I am buying these mutual funds through online, without anyone’s help. Please help. thanks Hari

When the mutual funds are considered to be one of the best investment options for a long-term wealth creation, it is important to clarify all your queries about the mutual funds. So, great work I must say. Thanks for consolidating all the important questions about the mutual funds in a single write-up and providing relevant answers to each query. Kudos for this great work!

Sir thanks a lot for providing such a valuable suggestions. I have started SIP In Canara robeco emerging equity growth fund of amt 3000/mnth since December 2016 for long period, How long should I run this SIP and is Canara robeco emerging equity is a good option for long term investment…?

I invest Rs.6000 pm in ICICI pru- Multi Cap Growth Fund and Income Fund since five months, please suggest whether i will continue with these two fund or switch to other! Please also suggest me some funds to invest with having tax saving benefit. I am 38 years old and willing to invest Rs. 10000/- PM SIP for 15 to 20 years would like to get 1 cr after 20 years. Please suggest…

Investing some of above since last 4 years. some newly added in last 1 year. Shall continue with above OR less funds with 2000/3000 SIP which those. Finance Requirement In 1st part in next 3 years, Second part After 7 years and last part after 10 years.